Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/324

302 302 HISTORY OF THE ration were the front of a chieftain's palace with its colonnades, roofs and towers, together with all the accessory buildings which could be erected on the stage, with more or less of finish and of adaptation to the special exigencies of the tragedy. Sometimes also it exhibited a temple, with the buildings and arrangements appertaining to a Grecian sanctuary. But in every case it is the front alone of the palace or the temple that is seen, not the interior. In the life of antiquity, everything great and important, all the main actions of family or political interest, passed in the open air and in the view of men. Even social meetings took place rather in public halls, in market-places and streets, than in rooms and chambers ; and the habits and actions, which were confined to the interior of a house, were never regarded as forming subjects for public observation. Accord- ingly, it was necessary that the action of the drama should come forth from the interior of the house ; and tragic poets were compelled to comply strictly with this condition in the invention and plan of their dramatic compositions. The heroic personages, when about to give utterance to their thoughts and feelings, came forth into the court in front of their houses. From the other side came the chorus out of the city or district in which the principal persons dwelt ; they assembled, as friends or neighbours might, to offer their counsel or their sym- pathy to the principal actors on the stage, on some open space ; often a market-place designed for popular meetings ; such as, in the monar- chical times of Greece, was commonly attached to the prince's palace. Far from shocking received notions, the performance of choral dances in this place was quite in accordance with Greek usages. Anciently, these market-places were specially designed for numerous popular choruses ; they even themselves bore the name of chorus.* When the stage and the whole theatre had been adapted for this kind of repre- sentation, it was necessary that comedy also should conform to it ; even in those productions which exclusively represented the incidents and passions of private and domestic life. In the imitations of the later Attic comedy which we owe to Plautus and Terence, the stage repre- sents considerable portions of streets; the houses of the persons of the drama are distinguishable, interspersed with public buildings and temples; every thing is arranged by the poet with the utmost attention to effect ; and generally to nature and probability, so that the actors, in all their goings and comings, their entrances and exits, their meetings in the streets and at their doors, may disclose just so much of their sentiments and their projects as it is necessary or desirable for the spectator to know. § 6. The massive and permanent walls of the stage had certain openings which, although differently decorated for different pieces, were
 * Ch. III. § G.